Louis Houck
Louis Houck was a man of many hats. The second generation German immigrant contributed to the region of Southeast Missouri in a plethora of different ways. Houck was born in 1840 in Illinois, where he lived until the Civil War started. At that point, Houck, a member of the Democratic Party, left the state, because he saw the war as one to be fought as Republicans, which was an unpopular opinion to have at the time. In 1869, Houck made it to Cape Girardeau and was able to begin his contributions to the area. Some of the ways he contributed include as a lawyer, a journalist, an entrepreneur, a developer, a regent, a philanthropist, and a historian. Additionally, he spent 36 years as the president of the Southeast Missouri State Board of Regions. It is as a result of all the work that he did and all the value he contributed that Houck was dubbed by Joel P. Rhodes “The Father of Southeast Missouri.”
Despite all the careers already mentioned, each of which have been proven to be enough to fill the lives of many by themselves, none of those were Houck’s number one contribution to the Southeast Missouri region. That honor goes to Houck’s work in the railroad industry. Over a period of 40 years between 1880 and 1920, Louis Houck, a self-taught railroader, succeeded in constructing nearly 500 miles of railroad track throughout the region.
As if the feat of constructing that many miles of railroad was not impressive enough on its own, understanding the area where Houck was constructing this track makes his effort even more impressive. During the time that Houck was working on his railroads, the Bootheel in Southeast Missouri was “a howling wilderness of swamps and marshes and lakes” according to Rhodes.
Joel Rhodes, who wrote A Missouri Railroad Pioneer: The Life of Louis Houck, the book in which he bestowed the title of “Father of Southeast Missouri” on Houck, said in an interview that “this little German was like [a] Teutonic blur of activity.”
Rhodes goes on to establish that although Houck did contribute a significant amount to the development of Southeast Missouri, he was not a completely benevolent person who had only the good of the public as his intention. In fact, Houck was deeply involved in the history of the Little River Drainage District, and not in a positive way. He fought the government as hard as he could, even taking his case to the Supreme Court, where he eventually went on to lose.
Despite the fact that Houck had his shortfalls, the man was well-known and well-liked, and for good reason. His contributions to the region of Southeast Missouri were significant and have proven to be long lasting. The jack of all trades with unending perseverance was involved in just about everything that was going on in Southeast Missouri during the time that he was there, and his true love, railroads, proved to be his greatest contribution as well as his most impressive.
https://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/presentations/ap_transcripts/morrpnr
